Friday, October 26

I'm sure you've been seeing all the ombre shirts on the runway and in the stores as of late. Ombre is the best thing to happen to tie dye since Jerry Garcia! You would think this technique would be super difficult, but it's not as hard as you might think. Check out our designer Lauri in her "DIY NEVER DIES" video where she shows you step by step how to get the look! You're going to be so excited to see how it's done!

Learn new techniques, chat with us while watching the show and ask
questions about all your favorite Aleene's products! Drop by our chat
room during Monday's show and mention that you saw this post on the
iLovetoCreate blog for your chance to win Aleene's Tacky Glue!

Airing Monday October 29, 2012 9am Pacific/11 am Central/Noon Eastern. Go to Cool2Craft.com and you'll see the Livestream player and chat box where you can join right in. See you Monday!

Wednesday, October 24

Avalon has been busy as a little bee getting straight A's in her honors classes! Can you say proud mama? I can! Go Avalon! So I stepped in to whip up some fun and festive Hooty Owl Halloween cards today.
These are so easy to make and you can layer them however you please with whatever papers and embellishments you have at hand. The lenticular owl came off a panel on a Puff's tissue box, which I simply could not throw away! The other owl is a permission free Art Deco era image from Dover to which I've added text and is here for you to download if you'd like to use it. I can't resist the urge to add googly eyes whenever possible. Teens can use these for party invitations or greeting cards or even frame them for room or locker decor. Fun, fast...and fabulous!

Remove image from tissue box. Create a frame for image out of patterned scrapbook paper using paper trimmer or scissors. Cut cardstock with a small border around edge of framed image, fold and crease with bone folder, marker or scissor handle. Adhere image and frame to front of card using tape runner. Cut rick rack to fit along the bottom edge of framed window. Adhere with tape runner. Cut twine to fit edges of frame, adhere with Tacky Glue. Attach patterned paper behind acrylic tile using tape runner. Cut a small piece of paper to fit center of tile and adhere to front of tile with tape runner. Write Boo! on front of paper with marker. Use Jewel-It glue to attach crystals to right edge of tile. Attach googly eyes to owl's eyes using Jewel-It glue. Use marker to add details to frame.

Tuesday, October 23

Following up last year's popular list of 10 Quick & Easy T-shirt Halloween Costumes,
here is another collection of ten DIY costumes on the fly. From the
cinematic to the everyday, from the historical to the commercial, from
the sweet to the oh-so-punny (scroll down to #10).... But let's start
with a classic.JACK-O-LANTERN T-SHIRT COSTUME

Make it:
1. Use the pen to sketch out jack-o-lantern features on a sheet of freezer paper.2. Use the craft knife and cutting mat to cut out the features.3. Iron the freezer paper stencil onto the front of the
T-shirt. Insert a sheet of newsprint between the layers of the shirt to
prevent the paint from bleeding through.4. Mask the parts of the T-shirt that are still visible, and spray over the stencil with black paint.5. Let the paint dry briefly, then peel up the stencil.6. Let the paint dry completely, then try on the T-shirt and go find a pumpkin patch to haunt!
---WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE ARE 10 COSTUMES TO MAKE WITH T-SHIRTS (including the JACK-O-LANTERN!)

#1 Jack-o-lantern. As shown above, that pumpkin patch classic.
Black paint on an orange T-shirt. Optional: Accessorize with a green
vine and leaves headband.#2 Sunny day. Paint white clouds on a pastel blue T-shirt, or
stick pillow stuffing on the T-shirt. Inspired by one of our readers,
Emily A. (not to be confused with Emily P., our model for this post!),
who used a variation of the Mohawk Mo' Rock hat (from Generation T: Beyond Fashion) as the headpiece. We used this more recent accessory. And hey, you can always use the costume to moonlight in Ben & Jerry land.#3 Dominoes. A fun and very easy group costume (just leave the
ears and tail at home so you don't get mistaken for a dalmatian) -- use
black fabric paint or black permanent marker on a white T-shirt. And if
you get tired at any point while wearing the costume, simply lie down
adjacent or end-to-end with a matching number on a friend's shirt!#4 Strawberry. Paint yellow seeds on a red shirt, and use
green T-shirt scraps to fashion a stem with leaves to sit a top your
head. Go solo or meet up with friends to make blueberries, watermelon --
a whole fruit salad!#5 Hippie.Tie-dye a T-shirt,
then pair it with bell-bottom jeans, a headband, and any other . (Note:
You have to schedule in additional drying time with this one.)#6 Soup can. Start with a plain white T-shirt and use a black
permanent marker, stencils, and red and yellow paint to embellish it.
Then convince a pal to go as Andy Warhol!

#7 X-ray. A great way to show some skeleton on Halloween, use white paint on a black T-shirt (and the painted parts will show up gray.

#8 M&M candies. Paint white lowercase 'm's onto red,
yellow, blue, green, orange, and/or brown T-shirts. Then really go the
extra mile and wear white gloves and white sneakers. Gather up a group
of friends for a whole handful of candies. Note: This approach also
works for Skittles!'

#9 Napoleon Dynamite. Based on the indie hit, paint blue edges
on a white T-shirt to mimic a ringer tee; paint or iron on letters to
spell "Vote for Pedro." Top off with some wiry glasses and a curly wig.#10 Ceiling fan. Heh. Number 1 fan of the ceiling. Get it? Get it? Use fabric markers or paints on a white T-shirt -- and plenty of props!

---Happy trick-or-treating everyone! Here's to last-minute costumes that are as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Sunday, October 21

The Cool2Craft girls are digging into their jewelry boxes this week to create restyled jewelry projects. Tiffany Windsor is restyling costume jewelry into blinged ornaments featuring Aleene's Super Thick Tacky Glue and EcoHeidi is upcycling water bottles into funky and fun pendants using Aleene's Original Tacky Glue, plus more!

Learn new techniques, chat with us while watching the show and ask questions about all your favorite Aleene's products! Drop by our chat room during Monday's show and mention that you saw this post on the iLovetoCreate blog for your chance to win Aleene's Tacky Glue!

Airing Monday October 22, 2012 9am Pacific/11 am Central/Noon Eastern. Go to Cool2Craft.com and you'll see the Livestream player and chat box where you can join right in. See you Monday!

Friday, October 19

I just LOVE decorating for Halloween! Here's a fun project I did for an iLoveToCreate photo shoot to match our Halloween food table. I love both polka dot and stripes and in this project, I got to create with both these looks! Halloween is one of my favorite times of year to decorate, because everything is so funky and fun!

1. Remove the insert from your frame and tack out the paper/cardboard sheet. Cut a piece of fabric larger than the sheet and wrap it around. Use your Tacky Tape to hold it in place.

2. Put your fabric-wrapped cardboard back into the frame and secure.

3. Use a craft knife to cut the pumpkin in half. It's really easy to do, the foam pumpkin cuts like buttah!

4. Open up the large Tacky Dots and remove from inbetween the plastic sheets they are seperated by. Apply randomly all over pumpkin.

5. Pour the glitter all over Tacky Dots and shake off onto a sheet of scrap paper.

6. Use a large brush to remove any excess glitter. Don't the dots look great?

7. I chose to further embllish the stripes with some random Tacky Dots using the Tacky Dot Dotter. I sprinkled on and shook off the glitter as I went. I went back in and used the brush to remove glitter when I was done.

Now frame and enjoy your creation! I actually did 2 framed pumpkins with my two halves. They looked perfect with the Halloween table we set up!!

Thursday, October 18

I have a thing for seasonal picture frames. It is kind of an addiction. When Target puts their seasonal picture frames out I am the first in line. I decided to add to my collection this year by making one of my very own.

SUPPLIES

Blank Picture Frame

Black Crafty Chica Paint

Halloween Colored Crayons

Vinyl Letter Stickers

Aleene's Tacky Glue

Hairdryer

Craft Knife

Pardon my lack of step out pictures, I had an anxious toddler as my co-crafter on this project. The first thing I did was spell out the word boo on my blank frame with vinyl letters.

Next I painted the frame black. Tallulah did a base coat with her kid paint and then I followed up with some Crafty Chica Paint. I set my frame in the sun to dry.

Using a craft knife I slit the paper on the Crayons. Tallulah was in charge of unwrapping and breaking. I chose Halloween colors. Yes, in my world teal is a Halloween color.

When my frame was dry I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to attach my broken crayons along the top of the frame.

When my glue was dry I headed outside with my hairdryer to melt the crayons. In a perfect world the wax would have made it down over the words Boo, but alas they did not.

The heat from the hairdryer helped my stickers to peel up at the ages. Tallulah helped me peel up the letters to reveal the words BOO! All that was left to do was add a fun photo of the fam at the pumpkin patch last year and display.